CVE-2024-9902
Description
A flaw was found in Ansible. The ansible-core user module can allow an unprivileged user to silently create or replace the contents of any file on any system path and take ownership of it when a privileged user executes the user module against the unprivileged user's home directory. If the unprivileged user has traversal permissions on the directory containing the exploited target file, they retain full control over the contents of the file as its owner.
Mitigation
In the play that uses the user module with the key generation option,
have a prior task ensuring the public key does not exist for example:
- name: avoid user exploit (change name depending on other options
used in user task)
file: path=/home/{{username}}/.ssh/id_rsa.pub state=absent
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 6.3 | N/A | 6.3 |
| Attack Vector | Local | N/A | Local |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | Low | N/A | Low |
| User Interaction | Required | N/A | Required |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | Low | N/A | Low |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality
Technical Impact: Read Application Data; Read Files or Directories
An attacker could bypass intended access restrictions to read sensitive data, either by reading the data directly from a data store that is not correctly restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to read the data.
Integrity
Technical Impact: Modify Application Data; Modify Files or Directories
An attacker could bypass intended access restrictions to modify sensitive data, either by writing the data directly to a data store that is not correctly restricted, or by accessing insufficiently-protected, privileged functionality to write the data.
Access Control
Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Bypass Protection Mechanism
An attacker could bypass intended access restrictions to gain privileges by modifying or reading critical data directly, or by accessing privileged functionality.
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
An attacker could use elevated privileges to execute unauthorized commands or code.
Availability
Technical Impact: DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; DoS: Resource Consumption (CPU); DoS: Resource Consumption (Memory); DoS: Resource Consumption (Other)
An attacker could gain unauthorized access to resources on the system and excessively consume those resources, leading to a denial of service.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Matt Clay for reporting this issue.
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